The iMac Pro is Apple’s most beastly Mac ever

iMac users have been waiting for an update to their beloved all-in-one, and boy did Apple deliver at WWDC 2017. Cupertino’s first new desktop computer since 2009, the iMac Pro, is an unadulterated, no-holds-barred beast of a machine that should make professional video and graphics users salivate like puppies in a butchery. Spec options include a 5K display, an all-new AMD Radeon Vega graphics GPU and up to an 18-core Xeon processor, but that’ll cost you, of course.

In short, it’s the iMac pro users have been clamouring for and unlike the Touch Bar-touting MacBook Pros from last year, the iMac Pro actually deserves the “Pro” designation.

So long Mac Pro

It looks like the iMac Pro is intended to supersede the barrel-shaped Mac Pro desktop that Apple launched in 2013… and promptly forgot about shortly thereafter. The Pro is built for heavy lifting in every respect. From the 8, 10 and 18-core configurations with up to 16GB of VRAM, to the choice of an SDD up to 4TB and 128GB of ECC memory (which means both writing and reading data should be lightning fast). There’s also support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi to ensure your uploads and downloads are equally speedy, assuming you’ve got a fibre connection, of course.

Doubtless the most excited Apple fans are those who work with video all day. Support for 30-bit colour and a P3 color gamut will make video editors and graphic designers lives that much easier, especially if they splash out for the top-spec 27in 5K display. And in case you need to make sure your buddies know you’ve got the new one, you can now get the iMac in Apple’s signature Space Grey.

All we want for Christmas

Of course, video professionals seldom settle for a single display, and the iMac Pro allows for this with plenty of ports and connections. Yes, way more than last year’s MacBook Pro line. With the iMac Pro you get two Thunderbolt 3 controllers, as well as a cornucopia of USB and USB-C slots. And yes, there’s even a 3.5mm audio jack.

The iMac Pro will go on sale in the US, UK and Europe before the end of the year, and with any luck South Africa will get it then, too (or shortly thereafter). Of course, this sort of cutting-edge, potent as your uncle’s moonshine slice of computing magic won’t come cheap. The base model of the 27in line with start at, gulp, $5,000 (or around R65,000). And that’s before you’ve gone crazy upping the processing power and RAM… which you’re probably going to want to do.